Monday, November 27, 2006

The government has put together a website to help folks moving to this fine province. As part of this resource, there's a section on how to dress properly for the cold weather. There's a funky flash animation showing South Park-esque kids freezing. And a PDF file identifying just how many layers you should be wearing at any given thermometer reading.

I grew up just as schools stopped teaching the Imperial system of measurement and started up with the Metric. I was right at that sweet spot where I never really learned either all that well. I know this chart is for newcomers, but I think it's going to come in handy around here!

unsure of how to implement theory with Blogger (doesn't let you have much control over the page titles)

Benefits:

everyone benefits -- it's a basic principle of good webdesign

specifically:

some screen readers have special keyboard shortcut (INSERT + F10) which displays (and reads) a list of the currently open windows, by page title.

Lynx displays the page title in the first line of output, so it's always the first thing that Marcus reads in Braille.

For various reasons, folks sometimes gets confused and momentarily loses track of what he's reading. The page title in the window titlebar acts as a visual anchor; it stays in the same place, even as he scrolls the page. You can always glance back to it to jog your memory.

Google displays the page title in its search results, and it ranks keywords higher when they appear in the page title. This is a Good Thing for you, if you're interested in generating site traffic.

Wahoo!! This was really easy to implement as I don't use tables for page layouts! Woot!

Benefits:

Folks using specialized readers can "see" my main content without having to endure my sidebar lists. (Many specialized readers display content in the order in which it appears in the HTML source. Which means that they have to go through a terribly long menus and sidebars to get to actual content.)

It also assists with search engines better able to rank your site -- some give more weight to the content nearest the top of the HTML page (not the page as it is viewed.)

Notes:

You don't have to have the sidebar on the right of the page to make the page accessible, contrary to what this page suggests. (In fact, it is possible, with a poorly configured website, to have the sidebar on the right hand side of the page and still have the sidebar content appear first in your HTML source. For a quick check, load your page without a reference to styles (or a style sheet). What you see, unformatted in the browser, is the order in which your data will appear in a screen reader.)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

"A Canadian charity is launching a bold new initiative to bolster the safety of an estimated 200,000 schoolchildren who suffer from potentially life-threatening conditions such as asthma, diabetes and peanut allergies."

"The children will be provided with a free MedicAlert bracelet, engraved with key medical information and backed up with access to a detailed electronic medical record and contact information through a 24-hour-a-day hotline."

From the MedicAlert website:

"The No Child Without program is an exciting new program developed to ensure children across Canada from Junior Kindergarten up to the child's 14th birthday with medical conditions, allergies or special needs are protected by the Canadian MedicAlert®

Foundation. There is no cost to the parent, school or Board of Education. "

Helen Henderson's article in Saturday's Star, "Why the gap between ability, job quality?" highlighted "society's inability to evaluate correctly the talents of people who move or process information differently from the decreed norm."

According to the article:

In 1998, the Canadian Council on Social Development found that 51.8 per cent of men and 41.1 per cent of women with disabilities with post-secondary degrees were employed compared with 82 per cent and 73 per cent of their respective able-bodied counterparts.

Three years later, a Statistics Canada survey showed only 51 per cent of people with disabilities aged 25 to 54 were employed compared with 82 per cent of their able-bodied peers.

Among those aged 55 to 64, 27 per cent of people with disabilities were employed compared with 56 per cent without disabilities, StatsCan said. For youth with disabilities aged 15 to 24, 47 per cent had jobs compared with 57 per cent of those without disabilities.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

"Chubby Bunny" is a game often played by children that involves the placement of increasing number of marshmallows or similar items into one's own mouth until you can no longer say "chubby bunny."

Sounds harmless, non?

"The game is insane," said John Fish to the Globe and Mail. "You have these esophagus-sized plugs and you're not allowed to chew them or swallow them, but your saliva's acting on them and making them slippery -- I mean it's inevitable that someone is going to die." (Mr. Fish's 12-year-old daughter died after playing Chubby Bunny at school in 1999.)

Also from the Globe and Mail article:

"You breathe in at the wrong time and you draw a huge airway obstruction down into your airway that is essentially self-sealing," said Chris Darby, duty manager for Thames ambulance."It's like spraying Styrofoam in there."

Friday, November 17, 2006

"OneLook's reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be a few words, a sentence, a question, or even just a single word."

Brilliant! If you could link it straight to my brain, I'd buy a life-time subscription! (Am I the only one noticing they're losing words since they became a mom?)

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

According to this recent Globe and Mail article, clubpenguin.com has emerged as an unlikely Interweb phenomenon. Three fellows from British Columbia launched this social networking site for the preteen set over a year ago.

It's a type of MySpace.com or Facebook.com for eight- to 14-year-olds.

To date, Club Penguin has resisted the temptation to cash in on their success.

Quoting from the Globe and Mail:

"Advertising is a great model for a grown-up world," explained Mr. Merrifield, who has two children of his own. "But I wouldn't want my seven- or eight-year-old being pitched all day long. I wouldn't let my child watch an hour of advertising on TV. So why would I on the Web?"

Friday, November 10, 2006

Now updated "to connect to your cell phone using Bluetooth technology. That's right! No more tangled up phone cord. Now people will think you're really crazy talking into a old-time handset connected to... nothing."

the "as low as" packages typically require you to commit for a year or more at a time

+

typically, .ca domain names cost almost twice as much as .com domains. I've seen them "on special" as low as ~$10 for a year and as high as $40NOTE: watch out if your purchasing a secondary domain that you wish to point to an existing domain... often obtaining the domain is inexpensive, but they fleece you when you decide you want to actually have the domain point to something

%

as of this post, it is not possible to hide your personal information from the whois database if you've got a .ca domain (although I hear that's coming in the near future)

Lessons learned:

for privacy to be enabled on your domain name (so that people can't whois your phone number and address) you often have to contact tech support separately as the information isn't always apparent on the sign-up forms

check to find out what happens if you exceed your monthly bandwidth (network traffic). Do they charge you more or shut your site down?

find out what other services or widgets they offer that may or may not appeal to you

investigate claims or guarantees about service availability

if pre-sales support is shoddy, don't expect anything better after you buy

investigate tech support hours of availability

sometimes smaller organizations provide better support than the larger, well established ones

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Friday, August 11, 2006

A Backhoe weighing 8 tons is on top of a flatbed trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas. The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Solve: When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half? (Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the driver...)

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

This isn't going to be a post about how much it drives me crazy when people use the phrase "I could care less" when they really mean that they couldn't care less. I really mean what the title says -- I could care less.

I care a lot. About everything. I was known in my place of employment as someone who had extraordinary attention to detail. I excelled at managing projects. Not because I was a good project manager, mind you. But because I cared so much about my work that I often picked-up the slack of others so things would some together in the end.

I worry too. Because I care. When tragedy befalls a friend, I try to find ways to help. And if I can't actually contribute something beneficial, I will often spend of a lot of mental energy brooding about the situation.

Let's not forget the time spend wondering if I offended the cashier at the grocery store. Or technical support on the telephone. Or the hours feeling put out because of an ill-thought out comment made by a complete stranger. Why do I care about what these people think? Why do I spend my energy on people who have likely completely forgotten about our little insignificant interaction through the day?

This takes a lot of energy.

Don't get me wrong. Caring is a good thing. It helps to make me a good friend, daughter, wife and mother. It's the glue that holds the human race together despite mankind's determination to do otherwise. But you can't care 100% about 100% of the things in your life. At least, I can't.

Not only could I care less, I should care less. Even if only as a matter of self-survival.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Mr. Miche noticed that I've been looking exhausted of late. He kindly offered up child-care for One Whole Day so that I could recharge.

What to do? What to do? One. Whole. Day. I could do anything I wanted! Spa time? (Try getting that last minute on a long weekend.) Personal pursuit time? (Like I can find any of my personal pursuits under all this clutter.) I could tend to my garden! (Did I mention recently about my stupid ankle?) It was looking like I might spend the day actually catching up on some much needed rest!! Woo hoo!

So. What did I do, you ask with envy?

I spent the day painting my parents' porch railing. Yep. That's right. I could get the whole thing done in one day or take 5 evenings to do it. I really need to protect my evening wind-down time. And it's done. And for One Whole Day I didn't have to plan, make or clean-up meals!

After dinner, the familyMiche went out for ice cream and playground time.

I didn't get the physical rest my body could probably have used, but the mental break sure felt good.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Friday, July 28, 2006

"From the standpoint of Google, however, this could take them a step closer to losing the trademark on their own name, as it starts to fall into more common usage. Can Google sue the Oxford English Dictionary? "

Monday, July 10, 2006

Sunday, July 9, 2006

I was recently reminded that a toddler, if drowning and panicked, has the strength to submerge and drown an adult who is trying to save them.

Here was the advice offered to me:

if possible, use a life-saving hook to fish them out of the pool / water

if you have to get into the water, offer a life-buoy, flutter board or life-jacket for them to grab hold of

if you have have to get into the water and have no objects to offer, approach the victim on your back, with your feet closest to the victim. Be prepared to offer a firm kick to the victim's chest in the event they grab at you and try and push you down in an effort to get their own head above water.

Question: How do you pave a 2.66 mile long track with a 33 degree bank in the turns?

Answer: Very carefully, with steamrollers and 40-ton pavers on 3-point winches and cranes. And to get the bulldozers (used as counterweights) at the top of the turn, you have to disassemble the entire crash netting. They've been at it for 2 months, and they're only half done.

Monday, June 19, 2006

"Supporting the 'let them eat dirt' theory of child rearing, the research suggests that an overemphasis on cleanliness can actually open rodent -­ and human- ­ populations up to endemic, immune-based ailments, says Duke University scientist Bill Parker. "

Isn't it nice to have science back you up on minimal house-cleaning?

Doh! Except for this caveat:

"Nor, he says, is it likely a good idea to keep your kids dirty, or to let them eat mud."

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Sunday, May 28, 2006

I found this over at Phantom's place. I wish I could say I was surprised by the results....

Your results:You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if youwere in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

For those of you coming to visit after reading this ninepounddictator post and Googling "Rebecca Eckler," I'm not the Freelance Writer who did a Mother's Day column criticizing Rebecca for having a blog and also having a nanny. Here is the link you are looking for.

Monday, May 8, 2006

Birthday party tidbits from Andrea Gordon and Don'tLet'sStart. Fire stations and appliance box spaceships sound like so much fun! Crafts and bowling sound good too. I especially love the clown photo board and the carnival theme in the latter blog!

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Friday, May 5, 2006

Apparently someone out there has cured themselves of asthma by infesting themselves with an intestinal parasite. I think for me, the cure is worse than the disease.

But look here, there's a sister story about the prevention of asthma by feeding children dirt. I think I'll save myself the time and aggravation by letting up on the housekeeping 'round these parts. Anyone care to join me?

Thursday, May 4, 2006

(I didn't title the article to which I'm referring, but I feel I should apologize to Ann Douglas anyway. Sorry Ann!) I know it's been done once or twice before, but I never get tired of reading articles like "The Mother of All Jobs."

The job: a full-time stay-at-home mother.

Massachusetts-based Salary.com has calculated the pay scale for a non-working mother based on the tasks she performs every day.

They looked at the pay scales of 10 jobs that appear to be part of a mom’s day-to-day routine – including a janitor, a housekeeper, a daycare teacher, a cook, a laundry machine operator, a van driver, a CEO and even a psychologist – then averaged out what the typical matriarch should be making.

The amount: $148,462.37 (Cdn.), if someone was willing to pay her for all her hard work.

I love this part too:

Salary.com has a website where moms can plug in their circumstances (number of kids, their ages, time spent on certain chores, etc.) It will calculate how much those services would be worth if there was an official job title consisting of ‘full-time mom’, and even produce a printable document in the form of a paycheque.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

According to this article Beijing plans to ban more than 2m cars to ensure that one of the world's most polluted cities will have clear skies for the 2008 Olympic games. They will also be seeding clouds to induce rain and temporarily closing building sites and factories.

Monday, April 10, 2006

I came across this some time ago. I want to remember it for when we start to streetproof weeMiche. Just in case I don't remember, I'm marking it here. That way you can read it and remind me about later, when I post about not knowing what to do to keep our little girl safe.

Rules for kids have to be few and simple. The best ones I ever heard, adapted over the years for teenagers:

1) Never go anywhere with anyone without telling me or the adult in charge. For balky adolescents, you can approach it as a matter of courtesy - that family members need to know how to get in touch with each other.

2) If you get a funny feeling in your stomach, or something doesn't seem right, get away from a person or situation ASAP (or in the case of little kids, tell an adult they want to leave).

Those rules cover everybody - the "friendly neighbour" down the street, the uncle, the babysitter's boyfriend and, of course, strangers.

Sunday, April 9, 2006

Interesting. According to this article, if you're in your teens or early 20s, e-mail is now considered to be an old-school technology. One that's useful mainly for communicating with parents and teachers. Old people.

Kinda makes me wonder where technology is going to be when weeMiche is in highschool. *shudder* I'm not sure I'm up for that kind of learning curve.

Saturday, April 1, 2006

Jan Wong has a great article in the Globe and Mail today. It's the first in a five part series describing her experience spending a month as a minimum wage earner, working as a housecleaner. She describes her struggle to exist on less than a living wage. Not surprising is the way that most clients treat their housecleaning staff.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

STOMP YOUR FEET! CLAP YOUR HANDS! EVERYBODY READY FOR A BARNYARD DANCE!Bow to the horse. Bow to the cow. Twirl with the pig if you know how.Bounce with the Bunny. Strut with the duck. Spin with the chickens now--CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!With a BAA and a MOO and a COCKADOODLEDOO everybody promenade two by two!

Monday, March 20, 2006

The posts in this blog may or may not be works of fiction. Names, persons, places and events described here may or may not be products of the writer's overactive imagination after scarfing back a chocolateFudgeWalnutBrownie. Any resemblance to actual places, events, or people, living or dead, could be coincidence -- or might be intentional.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Perhaps creating greeting cards as the play-group craft is a little ambitious for children of weeMiche's age. But there's nothing like glue-stick, markers, stickers and glitter to keep toddlers happy! (Too bad the items are never quite used as intended)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Hey! How many of you got spammed with this message today? (I've changed the company name to BlahBlahBlah to avoid giving extra publicity to the folks in question.) If you are in any way linked or available from T.O.Mama's post from last year, be warned... this message is headed your way! (This is based on visitor tracking information available to me.)

(I have to say, I'm impressed that one of my posts was actually read... briefly and incompletely but read nonetheless.)

Hello and good afternoon from BlahBlahBlahMom.com..I hope this message finds you well. My name is Chris Cooper and I work with a company called BlahBlahBlahMom, one of the internet's leading resource and shopping sites for Moms.. If you are not familiar with BlahBlahBlahMom, please stop by their site at www.BlahBlahBlahMom.com. This morning I was on the 'net looking for some "parent/kid focused" blogs this morning and came across your blog, and I really enjoyed reading your posts. (how did it go with the greeting card submission?)

Anyway, I wanted to contact you today to see about your interest in possibly joining the BlahBlahBlahMom Affiliate Program. Are you familiar with Affiliate Programs? If not, basically they work like this: you would join the BlahBlahBlahMom program (for free, of course), and post an ad or two on your blog promoting BlahBlahBlahMom. Then, whenever your readers click those ads, come over to the BlahBlahBlahMom site and join BlahBlahBlahMom, you are paid a commission on that registration. The affiliate program is a quick and easy way to make some extra money from you blog.

We do have a number of incentives that we use to attract new members to join, in fact right now we are featuring a Free one year subscription to Parents Magazine as well as a $2500 Home Organization Sweepstakes. You could post a banner or text link about these offers on your blog, and since your blog is read by the perfect BlahBlahBlahMom member (moms!), it would seem to be a natural fit to post info about BlahBlahBlahMom and make some money on the side.

Please let me know what you think. If you have any questions or comments - please feel free to get in touch via phone or email. If you would like to get started, you can apply here:www.BlahBlahBlah.com/BlahBlahBlahMom.

If a compact fluorescent bulb breaks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advises householders to immediately air out the room to let mercury vapour escape. The broken glass should be swept up, not vacuumed, and then placed in a sealed bag.

Manitoba Hydro advises householders to wipe the area where the bulb broke with a damp paper towel, and to dispose of the towel with the shards of glass.Most bulbs will burn out eventually without breaking.

Both Toronto Hydro and Ontario's energy ministry have the same advice: Store the burned-out bulbs in a safe place, and dispose of them when there's a community hazardous-waste collection.

In Toronto, there's generally one Environment Day per year in each ward, when local residents can bring hazardous waste to be safely disposed of.During the rest of the year, the city's six solid-waste drop-off depots will take hazardous waste. Information is available at 416-338-2010.